Welcome back to Hello Charlotte everyone I'm glad everyone enjoyed the first chapter. Please remember to COMMENT and VOTE, it means a lot to me. Plus I like talking to you guys and hearing your opinions. Also, remember to watch the video it goes with the chapter.

The song is Clock strikes by One Ok Rock

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-Ivo-

The aqueducts that ran beneath the Malkavian city were like large underground hallways, the walkways on the left and right side of the tunnel was separated by trenches of murky water. In certain trenches the clear water was being held back by metal sheets.

Delilah knelt down next to the clean water and stuck her hand in it. A few bubbles rose to the surface, there was a flash of bright green light beneath the water before Delilah drew her hand back. In her hand was something that looked like a large tomato. The tomato had a red outline with green leaves however in the middle of the fruit was water, almost like she'd turned the plant into a water balloon.

"Do you have enough of them?" Atlas asked her as she hooked the fruit onto the veins she'd placed around her waist like a belt. The plant hooked on instantly sliding into place next to the other water balloon plants Delilah had on the vines.

"Yeah, I can fit more on the belt but I should have enough of them," she told him.

"I would make one more just in case," I suggested as I adjusted Charlotte's wings beneath her cloak.

It took me a little while to get used to her having wings. But fighting in her body is a bit more difficult now that I have to account for seven appendages instead of five.

Following my advice, Delilah knelt next to the water again, beside her Atlas ruffled his wings causing a few feathers to fall.

"You've been here before Lawrence so why didn't you take care of Kessel earlier?" Atlas asked slowly.

"I'm an efficient soldier but I'm an even better assassin, I tend to do better in a one on one confrontations. Especially since my powers aren't exactly made for combat. I use magic to improvise when dealing with multiple enemies, people who can't work creatively tend to die more in this line of work than people who are lazy," he explained softly.

He let out a chuckle before looking over his shoulder, in his hand of I saw a small vial of liquid at the sight of it my eyes widened.

"Is that what I think it is!" I exclaimed.

Lawrence smirked. "A gift from Vincent for me to use in case of emergencies. I've only used it once before it's the reason I only lost an eye."

"But what would Therion blood even do? I mean it's just blood right?" Atlas asked as we began walking again.

"True but you have to remember the properties of a therion in general, even their soul can consume others. If you combine the blood with a bit of familiar magic, you get little blood puppets that are ready to consume anything in their way. If you combine it with my powers you get an army," he calmly explained in a mentor like voice.

~~~~~~~~~~

We traveled through the tunnels slowly yet efficiently taking out the guards that blocked our goal. Some of them were eaten, others were mutilated and the rest were dump into the water after being decapitated.

Eventually, we reached an entrance to the castle, it was a large drainage vent that led into what looked like a cellar. For a moment we stopped briefly to catch our bearings. As I looked around I couldn't help but notice the cells on each side of the walls, they were fitted with chairs with restraints for the wrist, ankles, and chest. Behind the chairs on each of the grimy walls were tools, each one covered in rust, dried blood, and clumps of solidified gore.

"Reminds you of Vincent's torture room doesn't it. Well, Vincent is a bit neater," Lawrence pointed out.

I let out a huff as I crossed Charlotte's arms. "That's probably where he got the idea," I grumbled.

Lawrence smiled slightly as he approached a nearby wall. "This tunnel behind this will lead us up through the castle at least halfway. After that, we'll have to make our way to Kessel's throne room. Delilah. I believe you should be ahead of the group, that way it'll be easier to silently subdue the guards using your veins." He explained.

Delilah took a deep breath then nodded. "Okay." As she stood there I couldn't help but notice that her hands by her side were shaking slightly.

Lawrence looked at me. "Let me guess keep her scales up?" I guessed.

He shook his head, however. "I know Charlotte can hear me so, Charlotte keep some of your scales up specifically the ones on your arms, legs, and chest. Remember what I taught you" He said.

Almost instantly I felt her scales slither across her skin as they moved to the places he specified.

Wait, he's making Charlotte into a small tank.

"Marianne, when we enter the throne room I want you to start disabling the spells and traps Kessel's placed." He told her. Marianne let out a small chattering noise.

Lawrence turned to Atlas. "Remember to keep to the air and hold your breath, Since you can do that for thirty minutes when you need to take a breath do short gasps. And finally stay away from the smoke, water is your friend too."

~~~~

As Delilah led us every so often she would stop and focus on something ahead of us. In the distance, I could hear the crackle of shifting branches and eventually the muffled screams of someone being suffocated.

"We're clear," Delilah whispered.

As we moved forward I couldn't help but notice how many guards littered the hallways, encased by their suffocating prison of roots.

"Are they actually dead?" Atlas asked in a hushed voice.

"They will be soon, especially if they struggle more. It's the equivalent of being in a snake's grip." Delilah told him as we strolled past the multiple cocooned bodies.

A moment later we stood in front of a large, white, double door. I pulled the hood of Charlotte's cloak down then I slowly pushed the door open to Kessel's throne room.

~~~

A blinding white light was the first thing that greeted us as we entered the room. The room was completely white, reminiscent of the jail cells of the Aveon prisons that Charlotte and I had managed to break out of. Near the end of the enormous room sat a blue, white and gold throne that was by the four ivory pillars on either side.

But instead of looking around my eyes were focused on the person who sat in the throne, as if to taunt me Kessel looked at me and smiled. He rose to his feet with one fluid movement, there was a strange look in his eyes that seemed familiar but at the same time, I couldn't place it.

What does he have up his sleeve now?

Delilah moved first, she raised one hand and then all hell broke loose. The ground beneath our feet flared up with a bright purple light as a very familiar symbol phased into existence spanning the length of the entire throne room floor. Almost immediately I was wretched out of Charlotte's body and thrown to the floor, as Charlotte stumbled back looking a bit confused movement around us caught my eye.

No wonder Kessel was just standing.

I glared at the human who stood in front of her picture identical to the picture Lawrence had shown me. She stood in front of me the tip of her spear level with my eye, as she glared at me.

I gave her a small smirk then I moved phasing right through her before she could move, a loud crashing noise entered my ears as I continued to teleport making my way toward Kessel. He threw out his hand and suddenly I was slammed into the floor almost like I was being held down, it wasn't just me who had been thrown to the ground either. Everyone except Kessel was pinned to the ground, I gritted my teeth as I struggled to my feet despite the fact that everything in my body was demanding that I needed to lay back down.

"Did you honestly think I would submit to you!" I roared at him. A combination of shock and horror covered Kessel's face as he realized that his gravity magic wasn't going to stop me from coming at him. As I lunged at him his movements were swift as his sword blocked my Therion hand before he attempted to slice up my tentacles of demonic energy I was trying to restrain him with.

Behind me heat filled the room coming from one of the magic users on Kessel's side.Then quickly came ice filling the room with steam and fog, my body felt as though I was encased in ice.

Charlotte must have gotten a bit stuck, but she'll definitely know what to do.

Behind me there was a loud animalistic roar and a terrified female scream, then the room was on fire.

"Charlotte..." Kessel whispered as his eyes looked at something over my shoulder. One of my tentacles grabbed Kessel's left wrist and yanked, there was a satisfying crunch from his wrist as I threw him off to the side.

Glancing back at Charlotte I saw her encased in her own fire standing in a large puddle of water, which had previously been the ice that Seras tried to incase her in.

I flinched as something sharp grazed my face. I settled my gaze back on Kessel I saw that he held a bow and arrow pointing it directly at me. "Pain never did stop you, I suppose I'll just have to break every bone you have," I growled.

"Just try me," Kessel hissed as he cloaked himself in the newly made fog.

A roar came from my left and I turned just in time to catch the neck of a tiger charging through the fog at me. Right before my eyes, the tiger's shape morphed into a glowing white arrow with a blue streak. I snapped the arrow and instantly it exploded, I staggered back the symbol beneath my feet turning from purple to blue.

Suddenly various arrows similar to the first were coming out of the fog and smoke, I had no choice but to keep batting them away. A sharp pain stabbed through my arm and I growled as I reached back to pull the arrow free. Except it wasn't an arrow I felt, my fingers instead came in contact with a strange looking plant-like creature. It was similar to a green tulip with sharp needle-like teeth embedded inside. I grabbed the stem-like neck of the strange plant and wrenched it from my arm.

There was a strange scent coming from the plant as I then proceeded to grab its mouth and pry it in separate directions, until finally due to my pure force it ripped down the middle spraying me with blood.

Behind me I heard footsteps running in my direction, I leapt up towards the ceiling managing to latch myself in place I looked down and surveyed the area. Smoke and fog filled the room cloaking everything in shadow. except for a few small shimmering glints below me.

Wait that's right, the Aveon uniforms have gold on them and Kessel's would have the most!

As I quickly scanned the room I noticed that most of the shimmering was coming from the area I had just been in. I instantly dropped down my therion hand outstretched it clashed with Kessel's sword again and I leapt back. I quickly extended one of my tentacles as I ran forward, Kessel easily sliced through it, I threw a punch which he blocked a startled look on his face right before I raised my leg a delivered a quick yet strong kick to the side of his head.

Kessel flew back his sword flying off into the smog that surrounded us. He lifted himself up slightly and coughed violently blood spraying from his mouth as I approached him. "You never were one to give up, so I'm not even going to-" I was cut off as an arrow flew past me completely missing even my outstretched tentacles.

A second later though I froze as warm spread across my stomach, instantly I pressed my hand to the wound that was already forming.

Not me, he wasn't aiming for me. He went after Charlotte...

I fell to my knees clutching my stomach as blood poured through the gaps in my fingers. Slowly my eyes met Kessel's but strangely enough, he looked horrified and shocked by what he'd just done. I staggered and stumbled my way back to my feet.

I saw Kessel move instead of reaching for his arrows to make something though instead, he appeared to be drawing something in his own blood. I grabbed his already broken wrist with the only demonic energy tentacle I still had active.

"I don't...fucking care...if I have to die. All that matters is that you're coming with me..."

From beneath my feet, the magic circle changed color once again going from blue to a dark red. In the next instance, I saw nothing but darkness.

~~~

The first thing I noticed as I opened my eyes was a strange looking turquoise sky. I was laying on a strange hard surface almost like a random purple and green land mass.

The world had no sound and no noticeable landmarks. It was similar to an alien barren wasteland. As I staggered to my feet I couldn't help but notice Charlotte laying a few feet away with Lawrence and that cat shifter Lorithia. "Please I can't help her, I don't know how to treat something like this!" Lorithia pleaded with Lawrence.

"Oh trust me I know, that's not why you're here," Lawrence told her as he adjusted the dagger at her throat.

"Lawrence what's happening, what's wrong with Charlotte?" I asked softly as I walked over to them.

"Ivo good you're awake, I couldn't wake you up when we first arrived here. I need you to make a contract with Lorithia then pump the enhanced demonic energy into Charlotte's contract markings." Lawrence instructed me.

"What-what's going to happen to me when you make this contract?" Lorithia asked frantically.

"You'll die eventually because your soul will burn out," Lawrence told her in a matter of fact tone.

I grabbed Lorithia's wrist as my demonic energy began to force it's way into her soul the black mist bled through her skin from my fingers, as Lorithia screamed I tightened my grip. I felt her own demonic energy try to force back against my own a second before it was engulfed.

The effect was immediate as a burst of energy filled me, quickly I placed a hand on Charlotte's markings that were on her chest. I focused, gathering my power beneath my fingertips.

As the black mist like substance bled into her contract markings they changed color going from red to a soft blue, and Charlotte's eyes opened slightly.

I heard Delilah and Atlas speaking as I focused on helping Charlotte.

"Ow, fucking hell where are we?" Charlotte groaned as she sat up.

"Kessel's twisted contract demon world," Delilah answered.

Lawrence sighed. "I'll get you all out of here, but my job isn't finished so this is where we part ways for now."

A second later the world was engulfed in darkness and then we were falling.

~~~~

I let out a groan as I sat up in the grassy field we had landed in.

"Fucking hell where are we now?" Delilah groaned.

"I'll find out," Atlas said as he flew up into the sky.

"You killed Daddy Kessel!" a smaller child like voice screamed.

I looked back seeing a strange little girl with black eyes and green hair, however it was the thing at the end of her hair that caught my attention, it was that same green tulip-like plant bulb that hand bitten me while fighting Kessel.

"Lyssa stay back he's dangerous!" Lorithia shouted at her.

"She's a Therion, what the hell has Kessel been doing?" Delilah whispered.

The girl lunged at me that bulb attempting to bite my face off. I grabbed it's stem like neck again as I held it back. Inside the mouth of the bulb was a familiar black and red swirling hole.

Kessel spewing his usual bullshit about Charlotte being his daughter when he has this girl just running around.

The bulb suddenly latched onto my hand and for a moment my eyes widened as I realized what she was trying to do. I let out a growl as I activated my therion hand then the girl began struggling and screaming as I began draining her life.

"Ivo stop it! What are you doing?" Delilah shouted her voice taking on a horrified tone.

The girl continued trying to eat me however, she must have never done it before or been a new therion because her body was being drained by me faster than she could even try doing the same to me. I stepped back releasing the little girl's body as it faded away to nothing but dust.

I let out a sigh as I turned to the others. Delilah and Lorithia looked shocked while Charlotte didn't even seem to care.

"Ivo, why would you do that? She's just a little girl." Delilah whispered.

"She was going to fucking eat me! But if you're so upset about it look at it this way, now Kessel has no therions for his plans." I snapped.

"Um guys, I actually see a village in the distance," Atlas told us hesitantly as he landed.

"We should head there and rest, for now at least," I sighed.